Include training on safety in journalism to equip scribes

Parliamentary journalists follow proceedings Parliament on Thursday 18/12/14 during the Security Amendment Bill. [PHOTO: BONIFACE OKENDO/STANDARD]

The ‘World Trends in GLOBAL REPORT 2017/2018, on Freedom of and Expression Media Development’ released by UNESCO has some shocking findings. The report states that at least two journalists are killed every week around the world. What is more despairing than the fact that 90% of these crimes against journalists go unpunished? Many of those that are targeted are local journalists. 92% of those killed in a country are local Journalists, not foreigners!

Case

The most important question to any journalist is, ‘do people know?’ As a Journalist the urge to break news is insatiable. Every other day a Journalist wants to do a great story that will capture the attention of the World. But in these stories are secrets that people in powerful positions or governments want kept in dark. In their heydays, if a Journalist asked many questions about their businesses Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder, Griselda Blanco, El Loco or José Santacruz-Londoño would not hesitate to have his/her head.

There are times that legit governments want to keep secrets too. When governments massacre those they believe are opposed to them, they want it done in secrecy. Journalists often find themselves between the truth and gatekeepers. The gatekeepers will threaten, brutalize and even kill Journalists to keep the truth from seeing light of day.

In Arua Uganda, When Bobi Wine was arrested and his driver killed, the security forces confiscated cameras, phones and writing materials from Journalists and brutalized them/arresting some of them. It would seem the government was keen on ensuring no one told the story and no one knew about the brutality. In November 2016, Joy Doreen Biira was arrested and detained in Uganda when she took and shared photos of what would later be known as The Kasese massacre. On February 10^th, 1984, the Wagalla massacre happened in Kenya, on November 15^th, 1991 the Bor Massacre happened in Southern Sudan and John Pilger has continued to report the massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli forces. The Israeli government vehemently denies these claims.

 

When Journalists expose these secrets, they are seen as a threat and loud mouths. To quote the report, “On 23 March 2017, Miroslava Breach, a journalist for the national newspaper La Jornada and a frequent contributor to the regional newspaper Norte, was shot dead in her car in front of one of her children, who was left unharmed. The gunman left an explanatory note: ‘For being a loudmouth.”

Whereas the report gives recommendations on how to ensure Journalists are safe, there is need to rethink the Journalism Curriculum. Like soldiers, Journalists go into war zones, together with rescuers they ran into flooded areas to file stories and alongside police officers you will find them in riots. The first and last man/woman you will find in a warzone, hunger stricken village, board meeting, riot, water soaked cities, murder scene, accident scene, political rallies, undercover mission fields is a journalist; who in his/her mind asks, ‘Do people know?’ For such a man/woman there is need for them to know and have more than just filling stories and cameras on them.

To train and release Journalists among wolves without training and equipping them on how to survive is inacceptable. Schools of Journalism, Scholars, governments, Media houses and the UN might want to tie white scarfs on Journalists and the dangers they face but it must remain in our thoughts that the world is dangerous and people who expose others are marked for death. Husbands are turned into widowers, wives into widows and children into orphans.

What to include

There is need for higher institutions of learning to revise the Journalism curriculum and include courses on safety, risk assessment and self-defense. This matter should be treated with the urgency it deserves. Other than how good you should look, sound, compose or ask, Journalists world over must go through a curriculum that will enable them to function properly under similar circumstances as their colleagues on mission (the army, police, rescuers, investigators etc.) Many deaths can be avoided if Journalists will be able to assess the risk of going into certain places under certain condition and if they will be taught on how to establish communication channels they can explore in case of danger. It cannot be overemphasized that these men/women must be trained in self-defense. If they are going into war torn areas, UN must find need to allow small arms on Journalists. Those skills and arms may just be what decides if a father, mother, son, daughter, grandparent or loyal citizen comes back home in one peace to his/her people.

Jumping out of a moving vehicle, surviving behind the enemy lines, turning your GPS on, tackling a threat with your body, driving in a dangerous zone, reading maps with compasses, footpath reading, identifying signs of life, firing a gun, making calls with corded languages and deciding when to follow a story or reschedule may just be the thin line between life and death for a Journalist. There is need to teach such to save lives.